


For the Win

by BrainiacVeins



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, Gen, eSports
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-27
Updated: 2017-11-02
Packaged: 2019-01-23 20:17:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12515704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrainiacVeins/pseuds/BrainiacVeins
Summary: After a member of their gaming squad quits, Yang suggests bringing in her younger sister. While suspicious at first, team captain Weiss relents. After all, what's the worst that could happen?Friendship, romance and eSports ensue.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> First published fic pls be gentle.

“I can’t believe I lost to you again!”

Weiss’s exclamation rang inside the small room. She moved her head to the side of the monitor currently obstructing her view to face her opponent. She found Yang, her teammate and current sparring partner, staring back, blonde mane tied up in a ponytail.

“Well, you are a support, what were you expecting?” replied the lioness.

“My mechanics are better than yours!”

“Still got low damage and mostly utility. You’re not made for dueling.”

“Ugh.” Weiss sighed, and she sat back in her chair. The chairs in the club room were pretty comfortable, their predecessors having spent their spare budget at some point to stay comfortable while gaming. The room was also quite spacious, despite only housing their team and some fighting games enthusiasts. It was the end of summer, and it was quite hot inside the club room; both Weiss and Yang wore tank tops with shorts. They were the only ones there, though Blake would be rejoining them soon.

Someone was missing.

“Say, where’s Violet?” asked Weiss. Violet was her laning partner, and she was usually even more adamant than Weiss about practice. Her absence was noteworthy.

“Wait, Blake didn’t tell you?” Yang said, seemingly surprised. As if on cue, Blake entered the room, carrying the chinese takeout she had gone to fetch. Weiss turned to her and repeated her question.

“Blake, where’s Violet?”

“Oh, Violet? She’s changing schools, so she won’t be on the team anymore.”

Weiss’s screech of surprise could be heard down the hallway (it was thankfully summer, so no one was there to hear her). 

“How did I not know this? I’m team captain!” she rambled, both angry and upset.

“Weiss, calm down…” said Blake.

“Don’t you tell me to calm down! What are we supposed to do? The season starts in october, and even if we find someone to play carry, we need to build up team synergy, we’re going to be a mess at the first meet, this is going to be a nightmare!”

“Weiss, calm down, Yang has a plan already.”

“Oh really? What is it.”

Yang shrugged. “Well, my sister’s going to be studying here, she starts next week-”

“Duh, classes start next week.”

“AND I set up her character a few weeks ago, so we could play together. So she could join us.”

“Taking a newbie and turning her into an efficient player in a month? Are you out of your mind, Yang?” responded a skeptical Weiss. 

“It could work! She’s a fast learner, she already has synergy with me, and we could mold her playstyle to ours. Besides, what other option do we have?”

Weiss pinched her nose. They didn’t have many options, that much was true. Molding a new player to fit their team was probably better than picking up some random solo player and hoping it worked. And if worse was to come, they could boot Xiao Long’s sister and try again with said random solo.

“Alright, tell her to come to practice wednesday. I’ll mention it to Winter.” Weiss let out with a sigh.

“She won’t let you down, captain. I’m sure you’ll like her.” added Blake.

“We’ll see about that.”


	2. Chapter 1

Ruby Rose was quite happy with how her first week of school had gone. She met classmates, the professors were nice, and the classes had convinced her of one thing: engineering was exactly what she wanted to study. 

Yet she was still nervous. A few weeks ago, Yang had made her install a game, War of the Grimm, and create a character in it. She had tried the game, and it was a lot of fun! She was getting better and better at the game, and she sometimes played even when Yang wasn’t there to help her. She had also started playing against humans, and she was enjoying it. But that wasn’t what made her nervous.

Last week, Yang had told her that the school’s gaming club had a War of the Grimm team, and that they were missing a player, a carry. And that she had suggested Ruby as a candidate for said position. Normally Ruby would be ecstatic at the idea: playing video games, with her sister, for school? It sounded amazing. But she’d have to meet new people, and deal with the team’s captain.

Ruby had heard her share of horror stories from her sister, especially after practice days. Her captain was, according to Yang, bossy, easy to annoy, and quite a bit haughty. But she was also a top notch player, so maybe she could guide Ruby well. She wasn’t quite sure. She was also to be her laning partner, which just made her even more scared of the captain’s, well, scary nature. At least she’d have Yang and Blake to back her up. 

Ruby walked through the school’s corridors. Through windows, she saw various clubs going about their activities: the robotics club was putting together their machines, the school newspaper was having a little reunion, complete with pizza (Ruby quickly realized she hadn’t eaten today, and hoped the gaming club would have something to eat), and she even saw the drama club, sitting together and going through exercises. She finally saw what she was looking for: a door, no window, with a simple piece of paper attached to it. It read:

GAMING CLUB  
(no scrubs!)

Ruby breathed in. She shouldn’t be so nervous. She already knew Blake and Yang, and the captain couldn’t be so harsh, could she? Maybe they’d become friends. It would make sense, they were going to be lane partners!

Ruby then realized she would be late if she waited any longer. She stepped forward and opened the door.

The room was a lot larger than she expected. In the back were two television sets, one much older than the other, linked to a half-dozen consoles. Connected to the consoles were controllers of various shapes and sizes, and a fighting stick, presumably forgotten by another member of the gaming club. To the right of the setup were large windows, letting in the fading sunlight of summer’s end, with great curtains attached, thrown open during the warm season. And in the middle of the room, four computers sat, two monitors facing two others. 

Three people sat at the computers, and as the door opened they all swiveled to face it. Ruby recognized Blake and Yang, who’s chairs’ back faced her. The girl with the white hair, however, she did not know. The captain, she assumed. She didn’t look that terrifying, despite the scar and the judgemental look. 

Seeing her sister, Yang immediately got up to greet her.

“Ruby! I’m glad you came!” she said, taking her sister by the shoulder. “Now, let me introduce you to our captain, Weiss, AKA Ice Queen.”

“Hey!” shouted the white-haired girl.

“You can be pretty cold.” added Blake. 

“I can also be nice. Here, look,” added Weiss, before turning to Ruby. “It’s very nice to meet you, Ruby.”

“Thanks.”

“So, what’s your character like? Any CC?” asked Weiss.

“CC? What’s that?”

A silence hung inside the room for a few seconds. Weiss frowned.

“Ruby… have you ever played a MOBA?”

“... what’s a MOBA?”

“Have you ever played League of Legends?”

“Nope.”

“DotA?”

“Nope.”

“... Smite?”

“Neither.”

Weiss started to look worried.

“Have you ever played an MMO? Like WoW?”

“No.”

“Have you ever played any multiplayer game?”

Ruby winced before answering. This was obviously enough for Weiss.

“Yang Xiao Long! You told me you’d find me a decent player!”

“She is! She just doesn’t know the lingo is all.”

“Lingo? Crowd control is a basic concept she needs to know!”

“How would she know? She plays a carry, she does damage.”

“Guys…” said Blake, soon drowned out by her teammates.

“She still needs to know what other people can do! Understanding the game is key.”

“Oh, like you knew everything about the game on your first week!”

“GUYS!” The shout stopped the argument. Blake did not look happy.

“Listen, we could just stand around all day arguing about whether or not Ruby’s worth putting on the team. But the season starts in a month, and we need to start practicing. Yang said she was a good learner, so let’s put that to use. Teach her what you know, Weiss. She’ll learn better that way.”

Weiss stopped, and seemed to think. She then pinched her nose and sighed.

“Alright, let’s see what we’re working with. Log in and we’ll do a bot match.”

\---

“That was actually pretty good, for a beginner.” Weiss said, as the victory screen lingered on the monitors.

She sounded satisfied. Ruby was also very satisfied with her performance, with an almost perfect score (she had died once, towards the end). She had also learned a ton: Weiss was very patient, explaining to her some basic tips that she would add to her playstyle quickly and explaining basic concepts to her, like CC (Crowd Control, abilities that prevent you from performing certain actions) and last hitting. She also understood her character a lot better, after Weiss gave it a look and gave her a few tips. This had been, overall, a success.

“So, still think this was a bad idea?” said Yang, the smugness in her voice almost palpable. 

Weiss sighed. “Thank you, Yang. I think we might be able to make something of your sister.” She then turned to Ruby, and added “Next practice is this weekend, on saturday. The coach will be there, and we’ll start some PvP matches. If you want to join the team, you should come. Sound good to you?”

“Sounds great! I’ll be there.” said Ruby.

“Alright, let’s do another bot match and then we’ll call it. Try not to die this time.”


	3. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rest and relaxation after practice. Or, for some of our cast, more practice!

Weiss arrived home late that night. When she had gone to college, she had insisted her father not to worry about transport, that she would use public transit. Despite how much she missed the luxury of a private chauffeur, she was glad she had made that decision: public transit gave her time to think while she headed downtown to the apartment she shared with her sister.

On wednesdays like this, she usually thought about the team, gameplans, reviewing their plays of the evening and how they could have done better. However, there wasn’t much to think about with bot matches: Yang and Blake were clearly above the level of bots, and even Ruby seemed to have surpassed that point herself. So her thoughts were free to wander back to the newest addition to the team.

Ruby was good. Not a prodigy, but good enough that she could be molded into a great player. She was eager to learn, and immediately applied what she did learn to her gameplay. Weiss wished more beginners would follow her example. But beyond the player, there was something about Ruby. Her demeanor was charming, and Weiss had to admit she was very cute. She seemed… soft, inviting. 

Weiss shook her head. To fall like this for someone was unlike her. Could she even call it falling for someone? She barely knew the girl. But she was certainly interested. Would Ruby feel the same way?

Probably not. Weiss had acted very coolly. Maybe she should fix that in the upcoming practices. 

The bus finally reached the terminal station. Weiss picked up her bag and walked out. She walked to the apartment complex and unlocked the door, climbing the stairs to the 3rd floor. She entered the small apartment. Winter was already there, cooking herself dinner.

“Hey, Win.”

“Weiss. I was starting to wonder where you were. How was practice?”

Weiss went and sat on the leather couch. Like everything in the apartment, it was white and almost stank of a richness that would normally be inaccessible to a college student and her sister. It was a remnant of the Schnee family fortune, which had allowed them to rent the small apartment and the furniture: their mother would only allow the best for her children. That fortune was, however, no longer available, as the sisters had wanted more financial independence, especially from their controlling father. They had found alternatives to pay rent, student jobs and other part-time opportunities, enough that they could permit themselves to have a life outside of the club.

“It went… well. Yang introduced us to the player I told you about. Her sister.”

“Oh, how is she?”

“She’s decent enough, though she obviously needs polish. She’s at least serviceable for now, and she’ll only get better.”

“I see, what about her character? What’s her kit like?”

Weiss paused. She hadn’t really paid attention to Ruby’s kit, focusing more on whether or not her basic skills were decent. She tried to summon up memories of the games.

“I didn’t really pay attention… she has a dash, that I remember, some melee cleave ability… her ult is a pretty big damage burst snipe… I can’t remember the last one, sorry.”

“It’s fine,” replied Winter, “I’ll look at it on saturday. I need a refresher on all your skills, anyway.”

Weiss didn’t answer, not that there was any need to. Her sister was still cooking, and she liked to focus on her tasks once she had started them. Weiss turned the television on instead, watching the news without a word. Once Winter finished the food, she brought the steaming plate to Weiss, and both sat around the coffee table, the only flat surface in the appartment. They ate silently, out of comfort, and watched a terrible sitcom.

Weiss enjoyed these nights.

\---

“Dinner’s ready!” shouted Yang from downstairs. Ruby paused the Pokémon game running on her 3DS, and swung her legs over the side of the bed. She enjoyed sitting on her sister’s bed when she was playing handheld games, and since Yang didn’t mind, it was a tradition she observed relatively faithfully. It might’ve been the height, or it might just be the top bunk was more comfortable than hers: either way, she had gone through many games perched up there. 

Ruby jumped down. She had changed since she had arrived from school, trading her jeans for pajama pants and her hoodie and shirt for a simple black tank top, taking advantage of the leftover warmth from summer. She walked out of the room, down the hall and towards the stairs. She lived with her father and sister in a small, cozy home, in the suburbs. It was quite nice, though she was excited about leaving it at some point in the future; she knew she couldn’t live her entire life away from the city.

She reached the kitchen. Her sister was serving plates of warm stew. She handed a bowl to Ruby, who immediately took it to the living room, plopping herself down on one of the couches. Yang joined her swiftly, carrying her own bowl. She sat down. The two sisters dug in. Their father was working tonight, and would be coming home late. 

“Hey, after we eat, how about we do a few games?” said Yang, mouth half-full. Ruby raised her head, quizzical. 

“But we already played at practice.”

“Yeah but, no offense sis, you’re still pretty new at this. Besides, we did bot matches, and you need to practice against human opponents. I’m sure Ice Queen will be happy to see you practice more.”

“That’s a mean nickname” opined Ruby.

“It’s her gamertag, don’t worry about it. So, one or two games?”

“Alright” Ruby finally agreed. 

“Good. Also, remind me we need to make you two more characters.”

“Why? That costs money, Yang.”

“Don’t worry, the club budget covers it. And you need three characters to compete, because of bans and stuff.”

“Bans?”

“You’ll see.”

Ruby sat back and finished her plate in silence. After they finished, she went to get her laptop while Yang set up on the home desktop. She went upstairs, and found it in her bag. It was beautiful, a relatively large black-with-red-highlights brick, with good enough specs to run just about anything she wanted to, and sporting a small, but useful SSD. She had purchased it with the money she had made during the summer, and she loved it. Everything ran smoothly on it, and despite the lack of storage space, she could still install a lot of games on it. She had even nicknamed it - Crescent Rose. 

She came back downstairs and set up on the living room table. She then booted up War of the Grimm and logged in. Yang turned around to look at her.

“Ready?”

“Ready.”

They spent the rest of the evening playing, Yang explaining the few mechanics Ruby didn’t understand yet, and Ruby consistently improving. They were still playing when their father came home and, taking advantage of the lack of morning classes on Thursday for the both of them, played until 2 in the morning. By the end of it Ruby was exhausted, but she felt like a much better player.

She couldn’t wait to show her new captain how good she could be.


	4. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First practice with Winter. How will Ruby fare?

The first thing Ruby noticed about Winter was how intimidating she was. She looked mature in every which way Weiss didn’t; her hair was tied into a neat bun, her eyes were smaller, more menacing, and she was taller. Much taller.

Winter, on the other hand, was less than impressed with the redhead. She wasn’t much taller than Weiss, and the clothes she wore, baggy and loose, only accentuated her small frame. Winter knew better than to judge a player by how they looked, but still, she didn’t know if she could trust the new carry or not. 

Either way, it wasn’t like they had much of a selection. Good players didn’t line up to play for a college team, and it was probably easier to teach this new player how to be good than to mold an already established player. She’d give the small girl a fair chance. 

“Alright. We’re going to run through a few practice games. But first, I’d like to look at your characters, to remember what you can even do.”

The four girls agreed, Ruby more sheepishly than the others. They went and sat in front of the monitors, booting the game and logging in. Winter walked behind them while they brought up their character screens, taking in each character’s abilities.

First up was Yang. Playing in the top lane, she was responsible for the tankier elements of the team. She played fighters and tanks, concentrating on the former but she did have a backup tank, just in case. The character she currently had selected was her favorite, a boisterous bruiser who’s entire job was “charge in, punch everything”. A dash, an empowered attack, more attack speed the lower she got and an ultimate that turned all of her strengths up to eleven. The definition of a berserker. It was perfect for Yang, and she knew her limits well enough that she wasn’t a liability in fights.

Next up was Blake. The mid lane was her domain, and she excelled at it, playing high-skill assassins of both the physical and magical variety. She could easily switch between ranged and melee characters, as was needed by her team. She currently had a melee character selected, a ninja who used clones as vectors for damage. The character had poke, melee damage, and disruption and mobility with the clones. It was one of her most versatile characters, but it still brought mostly damage to the table. It was okay though, someone else would bring crowd control to hold the opponents long enough for Yang and Blake to take care of them. 

Which would be Weiss, in this case. Winter immediately went to her, keeping Ruby for last: after all, Ruby’s character would be new, and she’d need to check her skills more closely, while she only needed a refresher on her sister. Weiss was the support of the team. Her job was to bring utility, through either healing, protection, buffs, or crowd control. Her pick for this game was the Glyph Knight, a character she chose when her teammates were more damage-oriented. He was a great source of utility, with a decent shield, easy to land crowd control, a decent movement speed buff, and an ult that could stop an entire team dead in their tracks, putting them in stasis. Of course, that came at the price of damage, but Weiss was nothing if not a team player, and most supports didn’t do much damage anyway. 

Now came Ruby. Winter stopped by her station longer than the others. She bent over the new carry’s shoulder, in an attempt to see the screen.

“Could you please go on your abilities page? I’d like to have a look at them.”

Ruby looked nervous, but she obliged, a small “sure” coming from her lips. She opened her character page, and clicked on the only character present (Winter made note to buy her more characters). A thin, small character appeared on the screen, holding an oversized rifle in its hands. They wore a long, black and red robe, and a curved blade at their hip. Their gender was ambiguous, or at least ambiguous enough that Winter didn’t care to discern.

What she did want to know was their abilities. She took the mouse from Ruby and quickly browsed through, looking over the numbers and committing them to memory. The Q was a decent poke ability, a line nuke that passed through enemies. The W was a cleave that pushed back enemy heroes. The E was a simple dash that damaged enemies it went through, and the ultimate was as her sister said, a very long range targeted burst spell. Overall, the kit, combined with the long attack range, was very safe, good for a beginner. How it would hold up in competitive, only time would tell, but she didn’t see anything wrong with it immediately.

Satisfied, she stood back up. 

“Alright girls, it’s time to see you play. Let’s do some PvP.”

\---

They had played 4 games when Winter was satisfied. She told the players they were done for the day, except Ruby. She turned to Weiss.

“Could you please download the replays for the matches we’ve played today? I’d like to go over them with our new recruit.”

Weiss obliged, downloading all four replays and handing over a small USB drive with the matches to Winter. Winter took it and thanked her. Blake had already absconded, while Yang and Weiss were waiting for their siblings to be finished. Winter walked over to the large television, which was not being used, and plugged the drive into another computer connected to it. She told Ruby to come with her.

While Ruby’s anxiety had diminished as the games went on, it came flaring back once Winter had told her to come. She had the distinct impression of being singled out. Though she understood it came from being the newest player, and the only one who Winter didn’t already know, she couldn’t help but be reminded of when teachers picked on her for daydreaming in class, despite having some of the highest marks in the class. Her performance in the last four games had been far from perfect, but she still did well, far above what was expected of her she was sure. 

To her surprise, there was no harsh judgement in Winter’s eyes. She opened up the first replay, and fast-forwarded up until the first trade in the lane, where Ruby’s team had to fall back a bit. She then paused it and turned to Ruby.

“Do you understand what went wrong here?”

Ruby paused, unsure. Winter took her silence as a negative, and continued.

 

“You stepped forward a bit too much. See how you’re in front of the wave? Your kit is made to poke and attack from a long range. You should almost always be behind the wave, unless Weiss and you are going all in. It’s a mistake I see you make often. We’ll create a shorter range character later, but you need to learn to play this character. Understand?”

Ruby was surprised, to say the least. Winter wasn’t scolding her: she was explaining, slowly, showing her what she needed to know and telling her how she could become a better player. There was no exasperation, no malice. She was simply telling her how her play was lacking and how she could make up for it. 

Winter continued to fast-forward. She went to the first kill in their lane: Blake’s character had roamed (she knew it was called that because she heard Weiss use the term) and, coordinating with Weiss and Ruby, pulled off a large burst of damage on the enemy carry, which Ruby had finished off with her ultimate. 

“That was really good. You waited until the right time to use your ult, and you helped Blake and Weiss in the engage. I’m assuming you saw her moving on the map?”

“Y-yeah.”

“Good. Map awareness is a good skill to have. This next play, however, was not as good.”

Winter continued to fast-forward, showing Ruby play after play, praising and correcting the mistakes she had done. Once she finished the first match, she went on to the second one, repeating the process, all the while making sure Ruby was listening and understood what she did right or wrong. Ruby was amazed. Despite her looks, Winter was a lot warmer than she seemed. It was a family trait, it seemed. 

“Alright, I think we’ve done enough for today,” said Winter, ejecting the drive from the computer. “Here, I want you to look at the last two matches and see if you can catch the mistakes you’ve made. I don’t want an essay, but I do want you to notice what you did wrong and try to correct it. Understood?”

“Y-yes ma’am,” answered Ruby.

“Please, call me Winter. See you next week then?”

“Yeah, next week.”

Winter walked out of the room, stopping by Weiss to inform her that she was leaving. Despite having spent a good hour with the woman, in what was a friendly setting, she still had an aura of intimidation to Ruby. Something about the way she carried herself, with confidence, back straight… it just made her seem larger than she was. 

Ruby stood up, ready to leave, when she saw Weiss was still at her computer, as was Yang. The two had been dueling while waiting for their sisters to finish the coaching session. They seemed to have finished now though, as Weiss was logging out, ready to follow her sister.

Ruby then had an idea. If she was to be the best teammate she could be, she should try to set chemistry with her laning partner, right? At least, that’s what Yang told her. Yang already knew the other players on the team, and she had natural chemistry with everyone. Ruby thought it would be good to act like her sister, and make friends with her teammates and coach.

Starting with her laning partner.

Ruby breathed in, and then stepped towards the computers. She could do this. She wasn’t the awkward teenager she had been when she was in high school. She was an adult. She would just ask Weiss for coffee, or something else that was just as innocuous. 

“Hey, Weiss?” said Ruby, and she hoped to god the shiver in her voice wasn’t too noticeable.

“Yes?”

Ruby paused and twiddled her fingers. “I was wondering… since we’re going to be laning partners and we’re going to be playing a lot together, I wanted us to know each other better… do you want to go for coffee or lunch sometime soon? I mean, it’s fine if you can’t or don’t want to, but I think it would be a good idea and you already know Yang and Blake-”

“That sounds like a great idea. Are you free on Tuesdays? That’s what would work best for me.”

That was not the reply Ruby expected, but she’d take it. “Tuesday’s great! So, lunch?”

“Fine by me. Here, let me give you my number. Let’s meet up by door 3. See you there!”

“Yeah, see you…”

Weiss handed her a paper with her number on it, gave her a smile, and left, following Winter. Yang, who had followed the conversation, shot her sister a mischievous smirk, but thankfully waited before the Schnee sisters were gone before making any comment.   
“Ruby, you sly dog.”

“What? I just want to know her better…”

“Oh yeah? And are you going to pretend you don’t think she’s pretty?”

“I... “ Ruby started, before huffing. Yang knew her too well. She did think Weiss was pretty. Very pretty, in fact, verging on the beautiful. There were, however, two major reasons she wasn’t actively making a move (three if you counted her general awkward demeanor): One, she barely knew Weiss, and jumping into a relationship with someone you barely knew was rarely a good idea; and two, she didn’t know if Weiss was, well, into women, which would be a major hurdle if she was trying to date her. 

Which she wasn’t.

But that wouldn’t stop Yang’s eyebrow wiggling.


End file.
